Julius Caesar

Independent Shakespeare Company
Reviewed by Taylor Kass
Through July 30th

RECOMMENDED

Power is a slippery slope. In William Shakespeare’s political drama Julius Caesar, returning hero Caesar (David Melville, who also directs this production) is a larger-than-life figure, complete with adoring crowds, magnificent statues, and the promise of a crown. But to senators Brutus (William Elsman) and Cassius (Sabra Williams), Caesar is all too human. He has seizures, is deaf in one ear, and behaves quite dramatically when he had a cold. This is the man who’s turning the hard-won republic into a dictatorship? Call it envy or call it genuine concern for Rome’s future – the senators decide that Caesar must die. As the opening show of their Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival, the Independent Shakespeare Company’s production is brutal and sparse, just like the text.

In a pre-show announcement, Cinna the Poet (Kelvin Morales) casts the audience as the play’s chorus. Shouting along to prompts on an onstage screen, it’s as easy to get swept up in Caesar’s magnanimity as it is to get sucked into the frenzy of the assassination plot. Williams plays Cassius, the instigator of the plot, as a bitter and pushy loner who lacks Brutus’ steadfast likeability. Cassius needs a figurehead to legitimize the power grab; Brutus needs someone to convince him that murdering Caesar is as benign as crushing a serpent’s egg. But their best speeches and their most logical reasoning fails when it comes time to put their daggers to Caesar’s flesh. Caesar’s assassination is shocking in its clumsiness; the senators are stunned at the juxtaposition between their lofty political ideals and their bloody hands.

While the energy leading up to Caesar’s assassination is relentlessly intense, it’s challenging to keep the momentum up after his death. Caesar’s heir Marc Antony (Hiwa Chow Elms) successfully stokes the public’s rage with an emotional speech at Caesar’s funeral, but the political fallout of the assassination and the formation of Marc Antony’s new triumvirate are difficult to follow. By the time that Brutus and Cassius face off with Marc Antony in the play’s final battle for control of Rome, neither faction seems better than the other. But maybe that’s the point.

 The Old Zoo at Griffith Park, main lawn, 4801 Griffith Park Dr., Los Feliz; Wed. – Sun. 7p.m.; through July 30. www.iscla.org. Running time: 2 hours and 25 minutes with one 20-minute intermission.